Simon Hacket and Emilis Prelgauskas at their 313-mile mark in Coober Pedy, South Australia.
(Credit: Hackett)A record for a Tesla Roadster driven on a single charge was set at 313 miles (501 km) in Australia on Tuesday.
Tesla Roadster owner Simon Hackett and his friend Emilis Prelgauskas drove his electric sports car from Alice Springs, Northern Territory, to Coober Pedy, South Australia, as part of an alternative-fuel vehicle rally called the Global Green Challenge.
The Tesla's electric-charge port door was sealed shut at the start of the 313-mile journey and the trip was filmed for a documentary, as well as monitored by contest officials. The Tesla's lithium ion battery, which the company assures owners will last over 200 miles between charges under normal driving circumstances, had 3 miles to spare when the team reached its destination in Coober Pedy, according to Hackett's chronicles of the race experience on his company blog. (Hackett happens to also be the founder and managing director of Internode, an Australian national broadband and Internet services company.)
Hackett said in his blog the achievement is actually a record for any production electric car, not just a Tesla Roadster, which is why his team was so careful to record it. To squeeze as much distance out of the Tesla's battery as they could, Hackett and Prelgauskas tried to drive at a consistent speed of 55 kph (roughly 34 mph) for a large portion of the almost 12-hour journey.
"The security seal was applied to the charge port door when we started the journey. As this is being done as part of the Global Green Challenge, we have a full set of official verifiers here who will attest to the results and to achieving the outcome. We were followed along the journey by our support crew and a documentary film crew--so we have it on film," said Hackett.
While Tesla Motors is not an official sponsor of the contest or Hackett, the company has shown support by spreading the news of Hackett's success. It's not hard to imagine why as Tesla poises for a major retail expansion.
The stunt may certainly speak to consumers who likely drive nowhere near 313 miles in a single day, but are still reluctant to hem themselves in with a car restricted to a limited number of miles between recharges.
Tesla Motors and co-founder Martin Eberhard announced an agreement over who can claim to be a founder of the company on Monday.
Tesla founder Martin Eberhard on the road with his Tesla Roadster.
(Credit: Martin Eberhard)Eberhard filed suit against the luxury electric vehicle maker in June, alleging that current CEO Elon Musk sought to "rewrite history" about Eberhard's role after Eberhard was ousted from the CEO position. Eberhard was seeking damages because comments from Tesla executives had harmed his reputation.
On Monday, a Tesla representative said that Eberhard and other principals in the dispute have come to an agreement. The company did not reveal any details of the resolution, except to say that there are now five, rather than two, agreed-upon "founders" of Tesla.
In addition to Eberhard, other founders include current CEO and chief product architect Elon Musk, current chief technology JB Straubel, Marc Tarpenning, and Ian Wright.
Both Eberhard and Musk, who have bickered publicly and through the courts, issued statements praising each others' contributions to Tesla.
An out-of-court resolution appeared to be Eberhard's best option for repairing his reputation after a San Mateo, Calif., judge in July dismissed that portion of his suit.
Tesla Motors in Los Angeles, Calif.
(Credit: Tesla Motors)Tesla Motors has garnered $82.5 million in "Series F" funding for the purpose of expanding its chain of stores in North America and Europe.
The deal was first announced Monday by participating investor Fjord Capital Partners. Tesla Motors then confirmed the deal to several news outlets on Tuesday. Daimler, already a 10 percent investor in Tesla, and Abu Dhabi fund Aabar Investments also contributed to the fund.
The California-based electric-vehicle manufacturer has had stores in Los Angeles and Menlo Park, Calif., for some time. It recently opened stores in New York, Chicago, Miami, London, Seattle, and Munich. It has plans to open a store in Monaco before the end of the year, and has said it's scouting for locations in Washington, D.C., and Toronto.
But don't call them dealerships.
Because the electric cars are light on service work, and don't need things like oil changes, Tesla plans to forgo the traditional dealership/service business model of yesteryear's car industry. Instead the company plans to maintain full retail control over its cars and brand, Tesla announced in early September.
Tesla Motors in Menlo Park, Calif.
(Credit: Tesla Motors)"Tesla takes its showroom cues from Apple, Starbucks and other customer-focused retailers. Tesla stores provide a welcoming spot to surf the Web, test drive cars and learn more about Tesla, the only production automaker selling highway-capable EVs in North America or Europe," Tesla said in statement.
News of the latest funding deal also follows the unveiling of Tesla's production model of the Model S sedan, as well as a tuner version of its Roadster, at the 2009 Frankfurt auto show this week.
The prototype of the Model S was unveiled in March as a way to augment Tesla's lineup with a more "economical" option to its Roadster luxury sports car. The Model S is expected to cost around $50,000--about half the cost of the Roadster.
Tesla Motors Chairman and CEO Elon Musk
(Credit: Tesla Motors)The legal battle and war of words between two Tesla Motors CEOs are heating up.
Current Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk responded in a lengthy company blog on Monday to a lawsuit charging libel and breach of contract from former CEO Martin Eberhard. In his blog, Musk dismisses Eberhard's claim that Eberhard was responsible for many of Tesla's key achievements, one of the key points of the suit.
Among other comments, Musk writes: "The facts are that when I requested through AC Propulsion to meet Eberhard, he had no technology of his own, he did not have a prototype car and he owned no intellectual property relating to electric cars. All he had was a business plan to commercialize the AC Propulsion Tzero electric sports car concept. Three years later, when Eberhard was asked to leave Tesla, most of the work that he had been paid to do had to be redone."
The battle started when Eberhard filed suit again Musk and Tesla, alleging that Musk was trying to "rewrite history" by taking credit for key accomplishments behind Tesla Motors.
Electric car maker Tesla has been in legal waters before. Last November, the company lost a lawsuit against Fisker Automotive, alleging that Fisker had stolen trade secrets. Last July, former Public Relations Director David Vespremi filed a suit, which was dismissed, against Tesla saying the company violated his terms of employment.
In the wake of layoffs and canceled orders, Tesla has been busy trying to drum up cash to fund its development and manufacturing. The company has applied for a Department of Energy loan to finance construction of a factory.
Corrected at 2:15 p.m. PDT: This article initially misstated the status of Tesla's loan application to the Department of Energy. It has applied for a DOE loan but has not yet received it.
NEW YORK--"I'm anti-tax, but I'm pro-carbon tax," Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk said onstage at the Wired Business Conference here Monday--a remark that prompted interviewer and Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson to quip that he was a "true Silicon Valley libertarian."
Tesla Motors Chairman and CEO Elon Musk
(Credit: Tesla Motors)Gasoline "should probably be $10" per gallon, said onetime PayPal co-founder Musk, who is also attempting to make sending satellites into space cheaper with a start-up called SpaceX. "I'm not paying for the true cost of gasoline at the pump...since nobody's explicitly paying for the CO2 capacity of the oceans and atmospheres, it's getting consumed. We will pay for it down the road, but we are sort of ignoring it for now."
Musk's company has put out the Tesla Roadster, a pricey sports car that runs exclusively on electric power. On the way is the Model S, a more affordable sedan. Separate from the technology, Tesla has gained a reputation for financial difficulties and corporate bickering. Earlier this month, former CEO Martin Eberhard sued Musk and the company for libel and breach of contract.
Musk's rash attitude and devotion to cutting-edge innovation has constructed him as a figure less than willing to compromise. He didn't sound too satisfied, for example, with the level of innovation in the Toyota Prius, the car that is practically synonymous with environmental consciousness in the auto industry.
"A Prius is not a true hybrid, really," he said. (A plug-in Prius is on the way.) "The current Prius is like, 2 percent electric. It's a gasoline car with slightly better mileage."
That said, Tesla shines quite a bit brighter due to the utter disarray of the U.S. auto industry, with major automakers falling into bankruptcy and Detroit in a continuing downward spiral. This, according to Musk, was the inevitable result of a completely broken system.
"Great companies are built on great products," he said, and when those products take a turn for the worse, so does the company. Automakers, Musk theorized, focused too much on the money rather than innovation. "The path to the CEO's office should not be through the CFO's office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design."
Musk said that unions weren't inherently the problem but the way that they were structured was. "It's not out of the question to have unions. But if they do have a union, they've got to understand that they're on the same side of the company," Musk said. "I really am kind of against having a two-class system where you've got the workers and the management sort of like the nobles and peasants." In other words, Musk thinks Detroit could use a dose of Silicon Valley corporate culture.
Surprisingly, Musk implied that Detroit will survive. "I think it'll probably be a healthier place. This has been somewhat cathartic. Maybe, I think, maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I think this will be a cathartic experience," Musk said. "I think GM and Ford, maybe not Chrysler, but GM and Ford will come out of this healthier...and more competitive."
He wants Tesla to be part of that, obviously.
"I'd like to take up some of the manufacturing plants," he said. "When the mess gets sorted out I'd like to have a conversation with whoever's in charge."
Updated at 8:30 a.m. PT with full statement from Tesla Motors.
The founder and former CEO of Tesla Motors, Martin Eberhard, is suing the company and current CEO Elon Musk for libel and breach of contract, opening up another lawsuit at the young electric carmaker.
The lawsuit (click for PDF) alleges that Musk sought to "rewrite history" by taking credit for the accomplishments and the very idea behind Tesla Motors, resulting in a damaged reputation for Eberhard. The suit was filed in the last week of May but become public on Wednesday night.
Happy times: Tesla founder Martin Eberhard on the road with his Tesla Roadster.
(Credit: Martin Eberhard)In addition, the suit alleges that the company did not honor its agreement with Eberhard after he was removed as CEO. In particular, the suit says that Eberhard did not receive the valuable second Tesla Roadster produced as promised and that the car he did receive was damaged in a poorly-run road test.
It's well known that there's no love lost between Musk and Eberhard. Musk, who became an investor in Tesla in 2004, ousted Eberhard from the CEO position in 2007 and eventually took over the position himself. In media interviews, Musk said that he needed to take the helm of the company after poor management resulted in production delays and technical problems.
In the complaint, Eberhard asserts that these public comments have defamed him and he is seeking damages from a jury trial.
The text of the complaint offers an inside look at the tense wrangling between the two men and the tumult within the company two years ago. Addressing Musk personally, Eberhard's complaint says that Musk misrepresented his academic accomplishments at Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Not surprisingly, Tesla Motors has a different view of the events and expects to file counter claims, a company representative said on Thursday:
"This lawsuit is a fictionalized, inaccurate account of Tesla's early years--it's twisted and wrong, and we welcome the opportunity to set the record straight. Incidentally, Tesla will also be filing counterclaims and in the process present an accurate account of the company's history," according to a statement from company representative Rachel Konrad. "As the media have already covered exhaustively, Tesla's full board of directors unanimously fired Martin shortly after discovering that the cost of the car was more than twice what Martin portrayed it to be at the time."
Separately, in his blog Eberhard said he is now working on building a mobile charging device for Tesla Roadster owners.
Tesla Motors has launched a safety recall covering all 345 Tesla Roadsters manufactured before April 22.
Tesla says it will make house calls to inspect the rear, inner hub flange bolts on several Roadsters after one owner reported uncharacteristic handling. After a root-cause analysis, Tesla determined that the rear, inner hub flange bolts on a small percentage of Roadster vehicles were improperly torqued during assembly by Lotus, the contract manufacturer of the Roadster chassis. Lotus is conducting a similar recall on some Lotus Elise and Exige vehicles.
No accidents have been reported as a result of this manufacturing issue, which is unrelated to the Roadster's all-electric powertrain.
Customers will not be charged for the inspection and software upgrade.
German automotive giant Daimler has invested in electric-car company Tesla Motors and plans to use Tesla's battery packs in its Smart electric car due later this year.
At a Tuesday press conference held at the Daimler museum in Stuttgart, Germany, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Daimler management board member Thomas Weber said the contract between the two companies calls for joint collaboration on the Smart electric car and future models.
Daimler has invested a "double-digit million-dollar sum" to acquire about a 10 percent stake in California-based Tesla, Weber said.
An electric Smart car being tested in Berlin as part of an electric-car trial.
(Credit: Daimler)"We are about to combine the best of the old and new school," Weber said during a press conference, which was Webcast. "We are both deeply convinced that electric powertrains will play a major role in sustainability mobility."
The two companies last year announced that Tesla would supply the lithium ion battery for the Electric Smart EV, a small town car. Telsa designs and makes the packs using battery cells used in consumer electronics.
Daimler plans to test those cars this year and to mass-produce the Electric Smart EV in 2012, Weber said.
The company, which has been working on electric-vehicle technology since the 1970s, chose to partner and invest in Tesla to help Daimler bring cars to market quickly, Weber added. "The first priority was to find the quickest and most straightforward solution," he said.
The technical collaboration calls for Tesla to supply battery packs and electric powertrain, and for Daimler to offer auto manufacturing and design expertise in a range of areas, such as safety and mass production, Musk said during the press conference.
"We look forward to future areas (of collaboration)," Musk said. "Smart is just the beginning."
Tesla Motors' Elon Musk has a friend in David Letterman.
Musk, the CEO and product architect of electric car maker Tesla Motors, was a guest on the "Late Show with David Letterman" Wednesday night. Also making an appearance on the set was the prototype Model S electric sedan, which made its first trip to New York this week.
But even though Musk and the Model S were the main event (well, after actress Jennifer Garner), Letterman did most of the talking. Actually, "complaining" might be a better word.
David Letterman finds a sympathetic ear with Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk.
(Credit: Screenshot by Martin LaMonica/CNET)Letterman is frustrated, downright irritated, that electric motors, which have been around for 100 years, are still considered cutting-edge technology. The Chevy Volt's 40-mile range is "crap," good enough to get the paper at the end of the driveway, he joked.
"If (auto companies) were actually working on technolgies that were actually in showrooms, they wouldn't need to be closing down plants and filing bankruptcies," Letterman griped.
As for the electric Tesla Roadster sports car, Letterman called it "bulletproof" and said it drives like a "bat out of hell." He admitted, though, that the first time he charged the car he was nervous it would burn down his house and "magnetize his nuts."
Musk did manage to get a few words in. He reiterated that the company's long-term plan has always been to build a mass-market car. "Anyone who does buy the Roadster is helping pay for the development of low-cost cars to follow," he said.
The reason Musk is pouring his energy and much of his personal wealth into Tesla is to spur the electric car revolution. "I thought that the existing car companies would do it," he said.
Both Musk and Letterman took digs at General Motors and its decision to cancel its EV1 electric cars, which were crushed when the program was canceled despite loyal customers. "With the benefit of hindsight, I think that (GM) should have built an EV2 rather than crushing them," Musk said.
After a commercial break, a curtain lifted and the Model S electric sedan rolled out, welcomed by oohs and ahs from the studio audience. Tesla will open a showroom later this year in New York.
While Letterman opened the door and poked about, Musk tried to make an "important point" about the Model S, which he said will be ready in "a couple of years."
But we may never know what Musk had to say. Letterman grabbed the steering wheel and started yelling "I'm being electrocuted!"
"Late Show with David Letterman" airs on CBS. CNET News is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.
The Tesla Roadster.
(Credit: Tesla Motors)If you love Paris and the environment, and you have a boatload of money, this could be your dream home.
A real-estate company called Welcome in France is offering a free Tesla Roadster with every purchase of one of its homes in a new ecological luxury-housing development on the outskirts of Paris, according to a report.
The development will use solar panels, geothermal energy, and its own water treatment facility, among other things, French car blog Le Blog Auto reported, but it's still under construction, and buyer interest has been slow due to the economy.
The Tesla is a new enticement to get ecologically minded (and presumably wealthy) people interested.
But with a helipad and golf course included in the development, it's hard to judge just how environmentally friendly the exclusive 40-home development could actually be.
